


with these broken pieces on the floor

by cherrykirsch



Series: be the one to make it bright again [1]
Category: Kamen Rider Build
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Character Death, Comfort, Dark, Family, Family Issues, Female Kamen Riders, Friendship, Gen, Hate, Hurt, Introspection, Loss of Innocence, References to Depression, Sento Dies AU, Spoilers - Kamen Rider Build, Wakes & Funerals, dark timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 05:06:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17318642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrykirsch/pseuds/cherrykirsch
Summary: Kiryuu Sento, Kamen Rider Build, dies. There's nothing poetic about it.Misora inherits the Fullbottles and questions whether it's her right to them in the first place.





	with these broken pieces on the floor

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still not over Build; and this AU has been in the works for a while now, so have it and the parts to come next.
> 
> Enjoy!

Misora wakes to twin dull, throbbing feelings. One on the back of her head, and the second deep in her chest.

The last thing she remembers is her father – Soichi, she reminds herself, he’s not her father anymore – throwing her across the room with Evolt’s power. He said Vernage was a flicker in the wind, Misora doesn’t know how much time she has left. A quick glance down at her wrist soothes the worry ebbing in her chest as she clutches the hand with the bangle to her chest, tracing the alien indentations in the gold with careful, trembling fingers.  
But now she is in the dark, literally and figuratively. She could guess that Banjou went to hand over the Pandora’s Box and Touto’s Fullbottles to save Sento. It’s something he would do, it’s something that she would want him to do. As for Sawa, she guesses that, as always, she is by Sento’s side, and that Kazumi is helping is helping Banjou in some way or another. For that, she is glad.

Slowly, Misora pulls herself to her feet, doubles over as the pain in her chest grows more intense and then fades, waiting as the feeling that something is so definitely, honestly wrong crawls into the forefront of her mind. She waits again, for Vernage to appear, for a call from Kazumi, for Rogue to burst through the door and try to kidnap her again.

The silence of the basement deafens her. No call comes, nobody bursts in, and Vernage does not appear.

Misora sits back down on the bed, staring blankly at the wall with her hands clasped on her lap, and she waits.

The loud wind chime over the door signals the entry of someone, and there are two following half jingles before the door is slammed shut. Misora gets to her feet, and climbs the winding staircase, plastering on a smile as she emerges from the fridge and turns to greet Sento, Banjou, Kazumi and Sawa in front of the bar.

Kazumi and Sawa are standing in the doorway.

Her smile falters. “Kazumi,” she says. “Sawa. Where are Banjou and Sento?” They look between each other and then down at their feet. “Did they go somewhere? Are they clearing stuff up at the Prime Minister’s office?”

Kazumi grimaces and Misora’s heart plummets as the fear in her chest increases. “Misora…” Kazumi begins softly, trailing off as he visibly struggles to find the words to say. “I… I’m so… so sorry.”

“What do you mean?” Misora asks him before she turns to Sawa for answers. “Sawa? What does he mean? Why is he apologizing?” Sawa doesn’t reply immediately and Misora sucks in a deep breath, lifting her hands to tangle in her hair. “You’re not  _ saying anything _ . Sawa, please, I need you to  _ say something _ .”

Sawa squeezes her eyes shut and takes a deep breath, her hands closing into fists at her sides. Misora notices that she’s been crying. “We… couldn’t do anything.” She says, and her voice is dripping with pain. “There was nothing we – or you – could have done. Sento… he’s—”

“Back at the hospital.” Misora hurries to say, desperate for Sawa or Kazumi to agree or say something other than broken apologies and excuses, and as Sawa’s eyes snap to hers, her face crumples. “Right? He’s been cured and he’s recovering at hospital, right?” She repeats.

The silence in the café deafens her. This time, Kazumi steps forward.

“We didn’t get there in time.” Kazumi says slowly as Misora’s hands drop from her hair to grip desperately at her skirt. “We… thought we could save him… we were too late.” Misora knows how much losing another friend means to Kazumi, so she has no choice to believe it. “He’s…”

“Gone.” Sawa finishes for him, laying a gentle, reassuring hand on his shoulder. “And Banjou… He… was Evolt’s true body. The Owner is in hospital. After Evolt joined with Banjou’s body, his was left over.”

Misora sucks in a deep breath. “What does that mean?” She asks and Sawa sighs gently, her eyes fluttering shut.

“I don’t know.” She says, and it sounds hollow and dark.

Misora turns to Kazumi. “Kazumi,” she says and his eyes snap to hers as she takes three stumbling, tentative steps forward. “Tell me that Banjou’s out getting food, that Sento’s with him. That they’ll come back. Please, just say something.”

He sucks in a deep breath, and then he does. “I’m sorry, Mii-tan.”

In an instant, Misora’s entire world crumbles around her. She gasps out a choking sob, staggering blindly forward with her head cupped in her hands as she allows her tears to fall, and, as she sways forward, her ankles giving out beneath her, Kazumi darts forward to scoop her up into his arms and hold her firmly against his chest. Sawa strokes her hair as she cries with a trembling hand.

Kazumi promises her that everything is going to be okay. Sento is dead.

With every sob, Misora’s body jerks and her lungs burn and Kazumi just rocks her gently back and forth and lets her cry. When she clutches onto the front of his jacket with a steel-grip and forces out intelligible words at him, apologizing maybe, crying out for Sento and Banjou maybe, he promises that he’ll stay with her.

Sawa wipes away her falling tears with a frilly white handkerchief. Banjou left them.

“I did everything I could.” Kazumi promises her, a faint whisper into her hair and she sobs harder. “We’re going to get Banjou back. It’s what Sento would want.”

Sawa pulls a piece of hair that has tacked itself onto Misora’s cheek with tears away and tucks it behind Misora’s ear. “He’ll be back, Misora.” Sawa tells her softly. “Before you know it. And we’ll always be here.”

Misora cries until she can’t anymore.

And then, she is nothing.

* * *

Sento’s funeral is something hurriedly pulled together and paid for by the new Prime Minister of Touto – a customary procedure to highlight the bravery Sento had shown for his country and honor him properly. (Kazumi had bullied the office until they paid for the headstone as well.)

And, of course, it was raining. How cruel.

Misora is standing underneath an umbrella with Sawa’s arm hooked in hers, her eyes fixed on the coffin in front of her and filled with tears. She is quiet throughout the ceremony, and, when it comes to the bone picking later, she is silent then too—she does her task diligently but with shaking hands, and both Sawa and Kazumi watch her carefully. The wake is made up of their small group and a couple of the people from the Prime Minister’s office who eat, talk and then leave.

Once more it is her, Kazumi and Sawa, alone in Nascita. She sits at the bar, a cup of cooling coffee clasped in her hands as she stares into its dark depths. Kazumi is sitting beside her, his own cup empty.

“Do you want to go and see the Owner?” Kazumi asks her, and Misora tilts her head towards him, still not looking. He takes it as a good sign. “I’m sure you must want to see him. He… isn’t Evolt anymore.”

Sawa nods. “It might be good for you.” She adds, and she shifts slightly. “To see him again. You could talk to him. I don’t think he’s woken up yet.”

Misora taps her fingers on the side of her mug, Kazumi notices that they’re chipped pink. He’ll offer to paint them for her later. “Will he want me there?” She asks quietly, whispered into her cup with a hoarse voice filled with the threat of tears. “After what happened to Sento… I couldn’t do anything…” Then she peers up at Kazumi wit tear-filled eyes. “Would… Would he hate me?”

Kazumi is shaking his head before she can finish speaking. “He wouldn’t hate you Misora.” Kazumi assures her. “You couldn’t do anything, there wasn’t any way you could have prevented this.”

Misora squeezes her eyes shut, finally removes her hands from her cup and brings them to her eyes, covering her face from Kazumi’s gaze. “If I hadn’t had been sleeping. If I had been there, maybe Vernage could have done something.” She says, her voice as quiet as a whisper. “I could have helped.”

“Vernage is barely hanging on,” Kazumi reminds her. “And Evolt made you fall asleep because he brought out Vernage. There… there isn’t anything you could have done.”

A tear slips down her cheek and splatters onto her sleeve. “I wish I could have done something.” She tells him as she leans her head in her hands. “I hate being stuck here. I wish I could be out there, doing something. Helping.”

Kazumi nods and wraps an arm around her shoulder. “I know.” He tells her quietly. “I know how that feels.”

“I would give up every opportunity to do something if it meant that I had Sento back.” Misora says, and the words break Kazumi’s heart. She sounds hopeless, lost, without destination, nothing like the idol he has loved for so long— he guesses that people are right when they say that your idols are different face-to-face, but Kazumi doesn’t mind one bit.

“I would too.” Kazumi says quietly. “I’d do anything to bring him back.”

Misora sniffs loudly and drags the back of her hands over her eyes. “I want Banjou.” She says, her voice choked and tiny.

Sawa smiles. “He’d know just what to say to make you smile.” She agrees and Kazumi chuckles.

“Something idiotic.” Kazumi says, giving Misora’s shoulder a comforting squeeze as a tentative, barely-there smile tugs at the corners of her lips. “But he’d mean well. And, I promise you, we’re going to do everything to get Banjou back. Even if it means I have to beat up Evolt and those stupid Hell Brothers all by myself.”

Misora laughs slight at that, and it is wet and small but it gives Kazumi hope. “You’re so stupid.” Misora says, and she balls her hands up into fists and sobs into them, leans into Kazumi and cries a she hugs her properly, for the first time. “I can’t lose you too. Headstrong idiot.”

Kazumi smiles and hugs her a little bit tighter. “You can call me whatever you like, just so long as you smile occasionally.” He says.

“You need a coupon for that.” She mumbles into him.

“I’ve got that covered.” He tells her, and she groans into his shirt.

“I knew I’d regret giving you that damn coupon book.” She says, and, when she pulls back from him, she dried her eyes with the sleeves of her dress and gives him a small smile. “Thank you, Kazumin.”

Kazumi reaches out a hand to ruffle her hair, smiling softly. “It’s nothing.” He says.

Misora smiles again and rubs the dark circles below her eyes with her thumb before she slowly eases herself from her seat, shaky and unsure on her feet as she pads around the counter and opens the fridge, stopping just before she ducks into it and turns back to Kazumi. “Would you take me to see my dad tomorrow? I… don’t want to go alone.” She sends a smile Sawa’s way. “You too. I need someone to hold my hand.”

Kazumi and Sawa share a look and smile.

“Of course.” Kazumi says.

“We’ll go when you wake up.” Sawa agrees.

Misora nods, shuffles on her feet and spares them one more half-smile before she disappears into the fridge. Kazumi and Sawa exchange another look, and they try to think of ways to make the next day easier.

* * *

They head to the hospital early in the morning, and, thankfully, it isn’t raining.

The walls of the hospital are blank and pale blue, and it takes them a while to get to Soichi’s room because the nurses needed Misora to sign something since she’s his next of kin. She blinks at it a few times before signing, carefully and with a shaking hand, and then Kazumi moves them onwards. Sawa’s hand is clutched in Misora’s.

Once they reach the room, in some secluded, barely alive part of the hospital, Misora slips her hand away from Sawa and turns to them both. She looks small in her coat, too small, like she’s drowning in it, and since everything she always has a look that makes Kazumi think that she’s lost.

“You guys stay here.” She says quietly. “I’ll go in alone.”

Kazumi and Sawa nod before Misora turns, sucks in a deep breath and pushes open the door to the room. It closes gently behind her.

Soichi – her father – is no longer Evolt. Banjou is. She still doesn’t quite know how to feel about that. But the moment she sees her father, lying comatose in a hospital bed, she doesn’t care anymore; none of it matters, none of the lying or trickery or evil things, all that matters is that he’s alive and he’s safe again.

After all of this is over they can rebuild their trust and become a family again. Tears well in Misora’s eyes as she walks over to his side, drops down onto her knees and clutches at his hand as she rests her head on the edge of the mattress. Her knuckles go white as she clutches onto him and tries to stop the sobs that threaten to wrack her body as she cries.

“I’m sorry.” She tells him. “Sento is gone. I know that wasn’t you in there, you’re not Evolt, you’d never do something like that to anyone. Especially not…”

She trails off, remembers Stalk’s masterplan; the murder of Katsuragi and the face switch with Tarou just so he could plant Sento (Katsuragi) close to him and watch his Hazard Level grow, how he did the same with Banjou.

Did… Did Soichi ever even know Sento? Care about him? Or was that just Evolt pretending all along?

Misora squeezes her eyes shut and draws in a sharp breath. “I just know that’s not you.” She says finally as she sniffs into the room. “Evolt did something to you. I don’t know what it was, but you’re going to be okay now, and we’re going to stop him before he can hurt anyone else. We still have Kazumi, and we’re going to get Banjou back.”

When she looks up at him, his eyes are still closed and the oxygen mask over his mouth fogs up whenever he breathes out. She rests her chin on the mattress as she gently rubs his knuckles with a thumb.

“You know… I… don’t remember what you were like before I fell asleep. I was a child then, I was… gone a long time.” She begins, unsure and quiet as she casts her gaze away from his face and down at their hands. “I don’t… really know if you are my father… I don’t remember anything… but, I guess, you were as close as you could be to a father for me. I want to believe, that after all of this, I could trust you.

I want to believe that we could go home, eat together, and you’d make terrible coffee for me and Sento. Things could go back to the way they used to, before you… we figured out you were Stalk. Or Evolt.” Misora sucks in a deep breath, preparing herself.

“But… I can’t do that. Everyone’s gone; Sento and Banjou, I don’t want to think about how long it might be before Kazumi and Sawa are gone too. And… you… I don’t even know who you are, I don’t think I’ll ever know… and I can’t trust you, not after this.”

Misora lifts a hand to her face to dry her tears, before allows her eyes to fall shut, smiling nervously. “I hope you don’t hold that against me. I’m sorry. It’s just how it is, and how I feel.” She says as she gives his hand an apologetic squeeze. “The truth is… I don’t know what’s going to happen when you wake up. Or now that Sento’s gone. Who else can be Build? Who else can stop Evolt from unleashing the full power of the Pandora’s Box now that he has all of the Fullbottles.”

As the tears begin to drip steadily down her cheeks, Misora removes her hands from his to clutch to her eyes, trying desperately to stop herself from crying all together.

“I don’t know what to do now that Sento is gone. Who do I give the Build Driver to? Who can fill his place? I want to be able to do something, I want to do something that will make Sento proud, that will make you proud.” She chokes a little, removing her hands from her face to clutch at her chest. “Christ. After all this I still care about you. I hate that.”

She squeezes her eyes shut again. “I just… I need some guidance here. I need someone to help me decide what needs to be done – we’re not going to get Banjou back without Kazumi getting himself killed and… I… I can’t… let him sacrifice himself for that. I’m done with watching the people around me die or fall apart.” She stills, looks down at the golden bracelet on her wrist and glares. “This stupid thing is good for nothing. I couldn’t heal Sento, so what’s the point.”

Misora grasps the bangle and tries to pull it from her wrist. She struggles for two minute before she gives up with a groan and collapses back against the chair near the bed, her head in her hands. The beeping of the heart-rate monitor is almost deafening.

“I’m not like you. Or Sento, or Banjou or Kazumi. I can’t fight, I just get in the way or get myself hurt.” She says quietly as she leans her head against the cool metal leg of the chair, allowing her eyes to shut. “All I can do is hope that everyone come back okay. But… I can’t do that anymore, otherwise, Kazumi will end up hurt or dead. He’s my family, he and Sawa and Banjou. We’re all we have. I can’t lose another person.”

The room remains silent and Misora lets out a choked noise before he puts her head on her knees and wraps her arms around them. She sobs into the fabric of her dress until her cheeks are stiff and she feels numb.

She wants Sento to hug her close and tell her that everything will be alright. She wants Banjou to make a stupid joke. She wants the illusion of having Soichi – not Evolt or Stalk – as her father, she wants the comfort that he used to bring her. She wants Sawa’s happy smile and Kazumi and Banjou’s fighting.

More than anything, she wants her family back again.

But Sento is dead. Banjou is part of Evolt. And Soichi isn’t her father anymore. Sawa’s smile hides sadness. Kazumi is carrying Misora’s weight on his shoulders, and he’s waiting for her to smile again. And Misora is broken. She cries until she can’t and then sleeps, she dreams of Sento and wakes up hoping to see him working away in the basement no matter how much her common sense says otherwise.

She heaves herself upwards, stands unsteadily on her feet and looks down at Soichi. Inside her chest her heart is breaking and she can’t – or doesn’t want to – think. “I’m sorry.” She says, and it’s mostly to him, even if she’s not sure he can hear her. “It should have been me; not him.”

Misora walks out of the room and down the corridor, leaving Sawa and Banjou’s voices echoing in her ears.

* * *

Staring at the world horizontally, is much better than staring at it straight on.

This way, everything is warped, and Misora finds it amusing, almost like the entire world around her has switched on its axis because she tilted her head. She likes the way it looks like the potted plants are in danger of sliding up and down the walls of the room like a marble stuck in a pipe.

She is jolted out of this, however, by Kazumi placing a red thing and blue thing in her line of sight.

Misora frowns and lifts her head up, swaying a little in her seat as all the blood rushes back to her head before she stares down at the things Kazumi had placed in front of her. Her heart drops. Rabbit and Tank. Red and Blue. Sento’s personal Fullbottles, his, two things that are irrevocably him. They leave a lump in Misora’s throat as she stares blankly down at them.

When she meets Kazumi’s eyes, a look of desperate questioning dripping from her own, Kazumi just shrugs and pushes them towards her.

“Sento would have wanted you to have them.” Kazumi says and Misora can’t do anything but nod, her hands clenched into fists on the table. “Rather you than me or Sawa.”

Misora swallows. “I’ll keep them safe.” She says eventually. “For Banjou.”

Kazumi stares at her for a moment before he picks the bottles up, pries open Misora’s hands and places the bottles into her palms, closing her fingers back over them. She looks startled, down at them, her heart racing in her chest, before she looks back up at Kazumi.

“They’re yours.” Kazumi tells her firmly before she looks back down to them. “Not Banjou’s. Not mine. Not Sawa’s. Yours. Sento would have wanted it like that.”

“What am I supposed to do with them?” Misora asks, the words coming out more harshly than she intends. “I can’t transform; am I meant to just use them as decorations?”

Kazumi pauses at a moment, taken aback by the snappiness in her tone. “Mementos.” He says carefully, after a moment. “Something to remember him by.”

Misora looks back down at the Fullbottles clutched in her fists and scowls before she tucks them into her pocket and stands, rather abruptly, pushing the chair from the table with a loud, cringey screech. Kazumi blinks at her. “I’m going out.” She tells him before she turns and heads towards the door and the coat rack, picking up a fluffy white jacket from one of the hooks as she slips her feet into her shoes.

“Okay.” Kazumi says. “Be careful.”

Misora leaves Nascita without another word.

In contrast to the warmth of the inside of the café, the world outside is chilly, and the wind and the cold nips at her nose and cheeks, flushing them pink as Misora makes her way across town to the cemetery, her hands shoved into her coat pockets. On her way, she passes broken buildings, piles of rubble and the park where she found Banjou, and she stops for a moment in front of it, just staring, before she continues onwards quickly. What used to be a colorful park, the one reminder for children (and her) that maybe everything could be okay, was now a singed mound of melted metal buried under a pile of building rubble and broken concrete.

Kazumi had told her to be careful.

Like Evolt would jump out of the shadows and kill her at moment’s notice, just to get her out of the way. Or, maybe one of the Engine or Remocon Bros would kidnap and torture her, do to her what they did to Kiba. Maybe that glasses-wearing servant of Nanba’s would make her miserable until it came to Evolt to end her.

Any way she imagined left her dead or severely injured in some shape of form, and, honestly, she doesn’t mind – she just worries what would happen to Vernage.

Rationally, she knew Kazumi was just worried for her. Irrationally, she didn’t want him to be.

Misora presses her lips together into a thin line, only to relax when she finds herself at the entrance to the cemetery.  She steps inside, heart pounding in her chest as she walks the cobbled path between the graves, searching for Sento’s grave with concentrated passion.

When she finds it, she stops in front of it.

Kiryu Sento is etched onto the dark marble tombstone and into the back of Misora’s skull. Every time she blinks she sees the characters for his name glaring at her, swimming behind her eyes, and she sees him, his smile, his hair, his tendency to try and get himself killed. She sees his life, in every shape and form, his breathing and his living, and for that she is grateful.

A small smile cracks onto her lips, the sadness flaking away the anger that’s like plaster on her face. “Hey.” She says to the headstone. “Long time no see.”

The Fullbottles are like lead weight in her pockets as she slowly reaches inside and pulls them out, one in each hand. Red and Blue. She stares down at them a moment, her thumbs tracing the pictures etched onto the bottles.

“These are yours,” She says, letting out a tiny huff of laughter. “Kazumin was keeping them. For—me, I guess. Funny, for a moment there I was going to say he was keeping them for you.” Misora bites her lip. “Silly of me, really. It’s not like you’re coming back.”

Slowly, Misora reaches out and places both bottles in front of his headstone, in the same way someone else would bring flowers. Then she reaches out to caress the kanji of Sento’s name, a sad, soft smile painting her lips, before she allows her hand to drop back by her side.

“They’ve missed you.” Misora tells the stone, nodding down at the bottles. “I can tell, they’re sad. They didn’t want you to go so soon.”

It’s true; not words to make herself better, or push her feelings off onto something else.

Whenever Misora holds those Fullbottles, the only thing she can feel is the pain, and the confusion. Those bottles were made for Sento, they were irrevocably him all the way down to the colours matching his shoes, and he carried them with him wherever he went—RabbitTank was always his first port of call for battles, his most powerful Best Match in every iteration of his upgrades.

Misora reaches out with a fingertip to touch the shielding cap, smiling when she feels the thrum of positive energy travelling from her finger into her body. She draws back and smiles up at Sento’s name. “They’re happy now. Being near you.” She says softly, hesitating as she clenches her hands into fists. “They’re not the only ones who miss you, Sento. I do. And Kazumin and Sawa.”

Misora fists the fabric of her skirt, squeezing her eyes shut in an effort not to cry. She hated crying. She hated that she’d been doing it so often lately. “We haven’t got Banjou yet. We’re… waiting for Evolt to pop up again.” She manages before she crumples, releasing her skirt to cover her eyes. “You’re such an idiot! I hate you, you know, for leaving everyone. For leaving me alone.”

Slowly, Misora falls to her knees and leans forward until her head is resting against the cool marble of the headstone. “You’re the only family I had left, after Evolt and Stalk. You… were the only thing… that… that was right in this world… I hate you!” Misora screams, her voice hoarse as she presses the balls of her hands into her eyes, hardly caring when the tears still dripped steadily down her cheeks. “I hate you! I hate you for leaving me and Kazumin and Sawa and Banjou! I hate you so much…” She trails off, the last words falling from her lips with a choked noise.

Her hands drop from her eyes to her chest, her left hand clutching her right as she presses them both over the spot where he heart is. “But…” Misora says, her voice a quiet whisper against his headstone. “The thing I hate most of all… is that I don’t hate you. I could never… ever hate you.”

As her emotions reach a crescendo inside of her, Misora’s face contorts in pain, taking a moment before she speaks again.

“I hate myself.” Misora admits helplessly. “I hate myself for not being able to do anything to help you.”

For a while, Misora sits in the silence of the cemetery, basking in the aftermath of her own words.

She imagines what it would be like if Sento were living, sitting in front of her instead of this headstone. Probably, he would take her in his arms and hug her in a reassuring but very Sento way, he would ruffle her hair and dry her tears with his thumbs and tell her to smile, he’d crack some stupid pun and Misora would laugh. She can easily see Sento’s smile upon seeing her own, the memory ingrained into the forefront of her mind for the times she needs to see it most, and that comforts her, at least a little bit.

From the depths of her heart, she believes that wherever Sento is now is better than where he was.

Someone like him, like Banjou and Kazumi, those who fight for what they believe and never give up in the face of opposition or the darkest of consequences, those who do not dwell on things they regret and protect the world, the things they care about with everything they have—those people do not deserve to be in a world, a universe, a lifetime, as harsh and unforgiving as this one.

Misora knows that if Sento were here he would say that he would never wish that he hadn’t been born into this world. She knows Kazumi and Banjou would say that same. And, just with that, it makes Sento and those two the most noble and honorable people she has ever met.

It makes them better than she is.

“I’m sorry.” Misora whispers as she lifts a hand to swipe at the tears rolling down her cheeks. “I’m sorry.”

After a moment, she looks at the headstone very seriously. “Is… is it okay if I keep the bottles?” She asks gently. “I know they’re connected to you, but, I wanted something to remember you by.”

Just as Misora is about to reach out and take the Fullbottles, there is a rumble beneath her feet and she sways in her unsteady crouch, collapsing unceremoniously on the floor when the rumbles grow heavier and seemingly closer. An explosion blows up a tree behind the cemetery and Misora hastily snatches the Fullbottles before she staggers to her feet and runs, trying to put as much distance between her and the thing that was causing all the destruction as she could.

Only for her to run right into it. Quite literally.

Reeling backwards with a dull ache in her head, Misora staggers backwards and then collapses, groaning in pain as she clutches at her head. She prods at the pain with gentle fingers and finds it tender, bruising maybe. At least she wasn’t bleeding.

“One of those Kamen Rider’s lackeys.” A voice says before there is a hand in Misora’s hair tugging her face upwards, she cries out at the pain and stares up into the eyes of a Smash, her heart plummeting in her chest. She can almost hear the invisible grin stretching on the Smash’s face. “Oh! It’s the girl, the meat-sack’s daughter.”

There’s a sound of footsteps and Misora’s eyes snap to the direction they seem to be coming from, hoping that it was Kazumi out looking for her. Instead, her heart plummets in her chest as her eyes meet the form of yet another Smash.

“Put down the girl.” The Smash growls as it approaches, Misora’s bottom lip trembling. “We’re supposed to be looking for those Riders. Not playing with humans.”

The Smash tugs Misora up by her hair until she dangling three inches off the ground and she immediately tries to wrench its hand from her hair. The Smash just laughs and hoists her up a bit further and towards the other Smash as Misora grips helplessly at its wrist.

“It’s the Kamen Rider’s girl. The meat-sack’s daughter.” The Smash says before he rips off the sleeve of her coat and thrusts it out to the other Smash. “The one with the bracelet. The one Evolt wants to kill.”

Misora rips her hand out of the Smash’s grip and kicks her legs furiously, the fear threatening to suffocate her. “Let me go!” She cries, her hands scrambling for purchase on the Smash. “Let me go!”

The Smash laughs at her, taking pure enjoyment in her unbridled fear. “Look! It’s begging!” It says before it drops Misora onto the concrete unceremoniously, scraping her knees and the skin on her arms as she crumples to the ground in a pile of dirties clothes and trembling limbs. “Well, well, what are we going to do with you…”

The second Smash bends down to look her in the eye and Misora shuffles away, flinching back when her back meets the leg of the first Smash. “We could kill her.” It suggests and the first one laughs as Misora tries to crawl away, dragging her back between them by the collar of her coat. “Maybe that would mean something to Evolt or Nanba, finally get the recognition we deserve.”

“We can’t kill her, dumbass.” The first Smash says, smacking the second on the back of its head. “Evolt wants her alive. If she dies, that bracelet is just gonna be someone else’s problem.”

Misora can feel the second Smash’s scowl above her as she shoves her hands into her pockets, grasping helplessly at the Fullbottles. “Then what do we do?” It asks.

The first Smash considers the question for a moment. “Let’s take her to Evolt.” It says finally.

“Good idea.” The second says as it reaches for Misora’s coat.

“I’m a vat of good ideas.” The first says as it turns to walk away. “Just get the girl and let’s go. I’m tired of doing patrol.”

Misora’s heart speeds up in her chest as the hand approaches, and, in a pure flash moment of instinct, she pulls her hand still clutched around the Tank Fullbottle from her pocket, reels back her fist and punches the Smash square in the chest. The Smash flies back into a tree with the same force as if it had been hit by a truck, sparks flying off its body in a wild explosion and it immediately slumps down with a groan.

Slowly, Misora staggers to her feet, the Tank Fullbottle smoking gently in her fist. “You’re not taking me anywhere.” She says slowly, her chest heaving. “Nobody else get to toss me around anymore!”

The first Smash stares in horror at the second before it looks back to Misora, taking a step backwards in fright. The Second Smash growls lowly, lifting a hand to gesture at Misora.

“What are you waiting for?!” It yells. “Grab her!”

Although hesitant, the first Smash takes a first step towards Misora, his hands held out to her. “Come on, we don’t want any problems here.” It says as it slowly approaches. “Just come along with us.”

The second Smash pulls itself up from the tree, groaning as it moves towards Misora. “Just grab her.” It growls. “We don’t have time for this.”

Misora watches as the Smash approach her, her eyes flitting back and forth between them until she squeezes them shut and shoves her hands into her jacket to grip onto her sides with her nails, digging in so hard she swears she’ll have bruises later. She thinks to Sento and Banjou and Kazumi, and how they always came to her help when she needed them, and even if it feels impossible, she hopes they’ll help her again.

_ Sento _ , she thinks.  _ Give me a sign you’re still here helping me out. Anything, please. _

She feels cool plastic slip into her hand and she pulls it out, thrusting it out towards the Smash. She hears them shuffle backwards in surprise and opens her eyes, in her hands is the Build Driver. She frowns down at it and pulls it back towards her, turning it over in her hands – honestly, when she was searching for any help, she’d expected the Drill Crusher or the Fullbottle Buster. Not the Driver.

What was she supposed to do with it?

“She’s got the Driver.” The second Smash says nervously. “Maybe this was a bad idea…”

The first Smash scoffs. “She doesn’t know what to do with it!”  It says with a chuckle as it approaches. “She’s clueless. She’s just trying to scare us.  _ Just grab her _ !” Misora moves the Build Driver to her stomach, the way Sento would when he used to use it, and the second Smash shuffles nervously.

If this is what Sento wants, it will happen. Misora knows that whatever happens, she’ll have to live with the consequences.

Misora closes her eyes, presses the back of the Driver against her stomach, and the belt snaps around her waist.

“Okay…” The first Smash says quietly. “Maybe she does know what to do with it.”

Reaching into her pockets, Misora retrieves the Fullbottles, shaking them twice before she turns the shielding caps around until they click and them plugs them into the Twin Fullbottle Slots.

“ _ Rabbit! Tank! Best Match! _ ” The Driver announces, and the Smash begin visibly trembling as Misora reaches for the Vortex Lever and begins to crank, watching as the Snap Ride Builder emerges from the belt and the Fullbottle essences flow through the pneumatic tubes to form the Halfbodies. “ _ Are you ready? _ ”

Misora raises her fists as the techno rock music from the Driver fills her ears, crossing them in front of her body before she thrusts a first outward and rests the other over her heart. “Henshin!”

She drops her hands to her side and the Halfbodies move towards her and snap together over her body. In a cloud of white steam, Misora emerges in the RabbitTank Form, standing in front of the Smash with one hand on the hip and the other raised towards the Smash as a finger gun.

“ _ Hagane No Moonsault! _ ” The Driver announces loudly. “ _ RabbitTank! Yeahhh! _ ”

The second Smash looks at the first. “She definitely does know how to use it.” It says. “Who’d have thought that…  _ that girl _ was given that Driver.”

“You’re forgetting one thing,” The first Smash says to the second. “She hasn’t fought a day in her life.”

From the belt, two pneumatic tubes emerge from the belt and twist together to form the Drill Crusher in a flash of yellow light, and Misora reaches out to take the handle once the pneumatic tubes retreat into the Driver and the yellow light fades away, and points it at the Smash.

As the first Smash charges at her, Misora ducks down and darts away, slashing at the Smash’s ankles with a flurry of strikes, darting up to smack it in the back with the end of the handle. The second Smash follows the first, and Misora hits it on the side of the head with the side of the Spiral Blade, knocking it away with a jab to the chest.

“You know that’s not going be enough to beat us!” The first Smash calls to her.

Misora removes the Fullbottles from the Driver and pulls the Hazard Trigger from her belt, pressing a thumb down over the button as she removes the Rabbit and Tank Fullbottles from the Driver.

“ _ Max Hazard On! _ ” She inserts the Trigger into the Ride Port with one hand, she shakes the FullFull RabbitTank Bottle with the other. She twists the cap and folds the bottle in half as it glows red, inserting it into the Driver. “ _ Rabbit and Rabbit! _ ” Misora makes eye contact with the Smash as she once again lowers her hand to the Vortex Lever and begins to crank.

“Build up!”

Speedy pop techno music fills Misora’s ears until the Snap Rider Builder emerges from the belt, this time in the form of an injection molding template. She crosses her arms in front of her chest and then moves them back to her sides as the two halves of the Rider Builder, one in front and one behind, meet over her body to encase her in the Halfbodies and then move away and disappear.

“ _ Are you ready? Overflow! _ ” From somewhere behind Misora, something approaches and then leaps into the sky, as if possessed, she leaps up too, watching as red armor snaps onto the Halfbodies, finally ending when she lands back on the concrete. “ _ Kurenai no Speedy Jumper! RabbitRabbit! Yabei! Haei! _ ”

“Okay,” The first Smash says slowly. “Maybe she does know what she’s doing.”

Misora feels as if she is floating in a giant pool of water. She doesn’t feel panicked at all; she knows she isn’t drowning and she isn’t struggling. She can breathe just fine. But even stranger than that, as she watches herself beat up these Smash from somewhere outside herself, she can hear his voice as clear as day inside her ears.

And it hasn’t been long since she heard it last, but it feels like an eternity.

_ Misora _ , Sento’s voice says, tenderly, like a big brother talking to his little sister.

Misora smiles, tears pricking in her eyes.  _ Sento. You idiot _ . The Smash dissolves into golden dust that floats away in the wind, and she watches it go.  _ There was still so much left for you to do _ .

_ It can’t be helped _ . His voice says and Misora bites her lip to stop herself from blurting that it could have been stopped, too afraid of scaring him away.  _ Besides, I’m sure you’ll do an amazing job. More amazing than me even, because I know you’ll see it through to the end _ . You’re good like that.

“It shouldn’t have been me,” She says aloud, her voice too loud for the cemetery around her. “It should have been you.”

_ You’re wrong _ . Sento’s voice says, warping with something that sounds ethereal, echoing deep into her soul, and then she realizes.  _ It should have been you all along _ .

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: [ cherry-kirsch ](cherry-kirsch.tumblr.com) || twitter: [ cherriwrites ](https://twitter.com/cherriwrites)


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